Board 25: Informing Replication of the Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem Pilot

The Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem (BCE2) is a pilot project developing a model for building an educational ecosystem with a multiplicity of outcome aims – attracting and retaining underrepresented groups in engineering and science, building STEM literacy within the regional workforce, and improving the quality of life of low-income neighborhoods. Thus, BCE2 aims not just at improving practices in STEM for greater inclusion and skill development, but also increasing retention of recipients of training or programming in the geographic regions where these interventions occur and are often most needed [1]. To do this, partnerships in the BCE2 pilot include a diversity of higher education institutions, the K-12 system, local government, and community organizations. In its final year of research and refinement through an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education grant, researchers have expanded educational programming and partnerships into another city in the region as a prelude to full replication. This paper discusses initial findings and challenges related replication of identified core elements in a reduced-scale trial.